


A Fateful Christmas Meeting

by captainamergirl



Category: Days of Our Lives
Genre: Christmas, F/M, One Shot, Stax, reunited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25356238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: What are the odds of Stephanie running into Max after all these years?
Relationships: Max Brady/Stephanie Johnson
Comments: 3





	A Fateful Christmas Meeting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sevensmommy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sevensmommy/gifts).



**A Fateful Christmas Meeting**  
  
It was unlikely that in a city with so many people, they should bump into each other outside Saks Fifth Avenue. She ended up dropping her shopping bags and he went to pick them up at the same time she did. As their eyes met, she shivered involuntarily. His beautiful aqua eyes still had the power to melt her insides. In that moment, the ghosts that had haunted her all the way from Salem to New York were completely forgotten. With Max Brady, she could just be.  
  
Identical apologies spilled from their lips. They laughed and it was like old times. He invited her to dinner and she accepted though she told herself that it didn’t mean anything. He was engaged to her best friend Chelsea last she had heard and she would never be the “other woman” again, not even for Max.  
  
Christmas lights were strung all around them as they sat in Tavern on the Green, peeking at each other covertly over their menus. Occasionally their eyes met and they smiled at each other.  
  
They ordered from a tired-looking, overweight waiter and then were alone. They started talking once again at the same time. He finally said, “You first. How have you been, Steph?”  
  
God, the way he said her name. _**Steph.**_ No one else said it that way, like silk dripping from their tongue. She smiled and said, “Hmm how have I been? Good, I guess.”  
  
“You guess?”  
  
“Yeah. I am liking living in the city. I have a really crappy apartment in a really bad neighborhood with a walk up that amounts to ten flights of stairs ... But its home. Salem ... I just needed to leave for awhile.”  
  
“Me too,” Max said. “But all you’ve told me is about your place. How are you really doing? Really? Have you met anyone special?”  
  
Stephanie shook her head. “No,” she said. “I was engaged to someone - actually two someones - but things fell apart. I did ... some things I’m not proud of.”  
  
He looked at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“I’m not, not as much as before any way,” she said. “They weren’t right for me, I realize that now.”  
  
“Still, it hurts.”  
  
“You say that like you know the feeling ... personally ...”  
  
“I do. Chelsea and I ... we broke up too.”  
  
“Oh, Max, I’m sorry. I know you really love Chelsea.”  
  
“I did. But we realized when we got to London that we were chasing an old, teenage dream,” he said. “She found someone else.”  
  
“So you moved to the city?”  
  
“Yeah, about a month ago.”  
  
“What’s your apartment like?”  
  
“Would you like a personal tour?” He joked with a mischevious smile that lit up his eyes.  
  
She smiled back. “Sometime, maybe I would.”  
  
They fell into companionable silence as their meal was placed on their table. They continued sneaking clandestine glances at each other the whole way through to creme brulee which was served for dessert.  
  
Max insisted on paying for dinner even though Stephanie argued with him. In the end, he won and they then walked out into the falling snow. She felt suddenly sick at the idea of them going their separate ways.  
  
“Max...” She murmured and he turned and looked at her.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Never mind.”  
  
“No, tell me, Steph.” Steph. **_Steph._** Why did he have to say her name like that? She couldn’t help but divulge all of her wishes and secret desires to him when he said her name that way.  
  
“I just ... I hope we see each other again sometime. It was so unlikely, us running into each other like this.”  
  
“Unlikely, Steph?” he said and suddenly his warm hand was on her left cheek. “I know this will sound cheesy but what if it’s fate?”  
  
Stephanie sagged into his touch. It felt so good and no one accepted and loved her the way Max used to. “Fate?”  
  
“Cheesy, like I said, but that’s how I feel,” Max said. “Like this was supposed to happen. We shouldn’t have to spend the holidays alone any way, should we?”  
  
Stephanie shook her head. He must have seen the loneliness in her eyes to know that she was completely without a friend in the whole city. Plus, her parents were snowed in at their place for the duration of the holiday or so it seemed.  
  
She nodded. “No I would prefer not to do that,” she admitted. “I keep telling myself I’m so strong now that I don’t need anyone ...”  
  
“But everyone needs someone, Steph, even us. No, _especially_ us.”  
  
Suddenly he was leaning into her and she noticed the scent of his ever-minty fresh breath on her cheek. She smiled as his eyes implored her to let him kiss her. She wanted that more than anything and nodded. The minute his lips were on hers, she knew he was right.  
  
Fate was responsible for this. Fate would lead them home. To each other where they had always belonged.  
  
FINIS **** ~~~~


End file.
